Friday, February 26, 2016

The triple-bill Caudog Records Showcase Rock Show! comes to LiveWire on March 18.

Christopher David from the Chicago alt rock band Magatha Trysty has a release party for The Houdini Tapes tomorrow night, February 27 at The Elbo Room on Lincoln Avenue.

Whitewolfsonicprincess will be performing tomorrow night, February 27 at Silvie’s on Irving Park Road in Chicago. It’s not a release party for their new Shadow Of The Marigold album (which I reviewed here this past Tuesday) but according to a Facebook post from band member James Moeller, they will play at a few songs from that intriguing effort.

The One Where A Former Friends Star Helps A Worthy Cause. David Schwimmer, who was recently seen with his fellow cast members on NBC’s tribute to sitcom director James Burrows, has helped the Chicago-based WFMT reach its Kickstarter goal of raising $75,000 to fund a Studs Terkel Radio Archive. According to Chicago Tribune media columnist Robert Feder, Schwimmer made a “sizable donation.”

The Neverly Brothers will be bringing their musical history show to Durty Nellie’s in Palatine on March 5. The 1950s/‘60s cover band has a double CD that it has been selling at its gigs.

C2E2 (Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo) arrives earlier in 2016 than it has in previous years. It runs from March 18 through 20 in the South Building at McCormick Place on Lake Shore Drive. Actor John Cusack, best known for his roles in Love And Mercy and High Fidelity, is among the guests, along with Melissa Benoist from Supergirl; Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell from Battlestar Galactica; John Ratzenberger from Toy Story and Cheers (he was also on that James Burrows TV tribute); and D.B. Sweeney from the White Sox movie Eight Men Out.

The Summer Cannibals, a Portland-based garage rock band that takes its name from a Patti Smith song, will release its third LP Full Of It on the Kill Rock Stars in late May. Fans can listen to the first single “Go Home” on the Spin magazine website.

In addition to the Sons Of The Silent Age tribute to David Bowie at Metro next Friday, there are two Tributosaurus shows honoring him at Martyrs’ next Wednesday, and they’re both sold out.

More Bowie songs will be on tap at the Caudog Records Rock Show! on March 18 at the LiveWire Lounge on Milwaukee Avenue. The event’s Facebook page promises, “You’ll hear some Bowie tunes, originals, and see a spectacular rock show!!” The triple bill features The Red Plastic Buddha, Amazing Heebie Jeebies, and Ellis Clark and The Big Parade.

On yesterday’s post, I mentioned a new cover of David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” by Sendelica on seven-inch vinyl from the Fruits de Mer label. American band Proud Peasant is also going the seven-inch colored vinyl from FdM route. Their cover of “Daybreak,” originally by a band I’ve never heard of called Eloy and the Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s “Saturn, Lord Of The Ring/Mercury, The Winged Messenger,” is due out April 6. The UK-based indie label also has a four-song single from Italian singer-songwriter Claudio Cataldi due out that day.

There’s only one week left to check out The Hypocrites theater group’s staging of local actor Hans Fleischman’s inventive and critically acclaimed take on The Glass Menagerie at The Den Theatre. It runs through March 6. Fleischman’s version of the Tennessee Williams play was a huge hit for the Mary-Arrchie Theatre a few years back.

Time is also running out for anyone who wants witness Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s final production— a staging of David Mamet's American Buffalo. After March 6, the Mary-Arrchie, after 30 years of providing some of Chicago’s best storefront productions at its Sheridan Road home, will cease to exist. Although there is talk that Mary-Arrchie will hold a final Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins festival at some other venue in August.

Tony Award nominee Mary Bridget Davies will be in the lead role when A Night With Janis Joplin comes to The Chicago Theatre next Sunday, March 6. The show is being described as “a musical journey celebrating Janis Joplin and her biggest musical influences.”

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About This Blog

Broken Hearted Toy is an eclectic celebration of creativity, with over 1,900 posts since 2009.

It's based in Chicago and covers power pop, garage, cutting-edge, and 1960s rock; along with occasional bits on art; literature; and theatre.

Top of the hill is a nice place to be at. - - - "Elevated Observations" by The Hollies.

Check out some of my other creative endeavors.

Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff is a weekly Internet show created by and starring Jeff Kelley. It mostly consists of comedy bits and obscure 1960s garage rock set to vintage TV and film clips but also spotlights entertainment events around Illinois.

Over the past few years, my wife Pam and I created a handful of series (each episode was about two minutes long) that were shown on Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff. They included Manchester Gallery (see description below); Old Days, which I hosted in the persona of a cranky old man named Fritz Willoughby; Roving Reporter, where I played the clueless title character; What's With Terry?, a performance arts program; and Hanging With The Hollies, a takeoff on Breakfast With The Beatles.

I've also worked with Kelley and contributors Willy Deal and David Metzger on comedy clips. Jeff just kicked off a new season of Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff, with some cool graphics to go with his new regular features. Willy Deal is onboard, and I'm hoping to join them for some creative endeavors in the near future.

I'm particularly proud of this 21-episode comedy series Pam and I created for Sunday Morning Coffee With Jeff. Each installment was a few minutes long, and featured me portraying Terrence, the curator of a pop culture museum.

My original concept was to make up funny descriptions for some of the rock memorabilia I've collected, but it soon morphed into a sit-com format where my character's inept and devious ways constantly got him into trouble. The two running themes that fueled the action concerned a purloined Beatles button, and the scrambled eggs Paul McCartney was eating when he got the inspiration to compose "Yesterday."

I'm currently exploring options for pitching my Manchester Gallery web-based series to a media company that could help it reach a much larger audience.

This Chicago-based magazine has been covering rock music for close to 40 years, and has a readership of 165,000. I started contributing in 1987 and have written several feature stories and far too many album reviews to count. The Illinois Entertainer can also be found in an online edition.

After starting Broken Hearted Toy a few years back, I asked I.E.'s editor and publisher if I could post material that I had previously written for their publication, and they graciously granted me permission to do so.

Chicago Art Machine was a web-based publishing company run by Editor-in-Chief, Kathryn Born, and Managing Editor, Robin Dluzen, that included Chicago Art Magazine, Chicago DIY Film,Chicago Performance And Trailers, and TINC. Most of my submissions appeared in Chicago DIY Film and Chicago Performance And Trailers, although I contributed to all the online Chicago Art Machine publications.

Unfortunately, Chicago Art Machine has folded. I greatly enjoyed working with Kathryn and Robin, and I'm glad to see they've gone on to other projects in the arts and journalism. I hope to work with them again at some point in the future.

I was a writer and performer with this local comedy group from 1989 to 2009. Amusical parody I wrote about Arthur Andersen's Enron crisis was covered by the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and other publications.

Famous In The Future continues to perform in the Chicago area, and has appeared at every one of the Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins theatre festivals that are held each August at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre. Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins will celebrate its 25th Anniversary in August, 2013.

Famous In The Future has a musical side project called The Rut, which occasionally plays at concert events organized by whitewolfsonicprincess, a band that's an offshoot of Black Forest Theatre.

I'm an active member of SCBWI, (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and have written two Middle Grade fantasy novels that I'm shopping to literary agents. I've finished a mystery/satiric novel that takes place amidst Chicago's alternative music scene in the mid-1980s.

Broken Hearted Toy

The blog title comes from the line, "I'm the brokenhearted toy you play with" in the song "I Can't Let Go" by The Hollies. One of the great original British Invasion bands, The Hollies continue to have an immense influence on power pop bands to this day, and have finally been inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here is a video of "I Can't Let Go" being performed in 1966.